Personalising Your SMS Marketing
What exactly is personalisation? Does it simply mean adding a first name to your SMS marketing messages? Or is it more than that? You’ve probably guessed – it’s way more than that.
Using people’s names in marketing is great. It does provide a certain level of personalisation that can get people more interested in what you’re sending them. Of course in text messaging, you don’t always have the room for a name, your message, and the required opt out information … usually there just isn’t enough room. So how can you make your marketing messages personal?
Find out about the people on your list. Who are they, what do they buy from you, what services of yours do they use, how old are they, do they have kids? Figure out what questions would be helpful to have answered given your business or organisation so you can create a personal message. One easy way is to know someone’s birthday. That’s one personal message you can send each year. You probably want to market to them more than that though, so get the answers to all those questions you just thought up.
Here is an example. You run a travel agency that books trips all over the world for all types of people. But are those people who go to the Caribbean every spring interested in going to Iceland instead? Maybe. But you know they would be interested in an early booking special for 10% holiday packages to the Caribbean with travel dates during the spring. Those people would consider that a personal message from you, their travel agent. You know they like to spend spring walking the warm sandy beaches and snorkelling in the bright blue waters. Use whatever information you have about your clients’ past trips to personalise offers for their next trip. It’s the content, and the intention, that’s personal in this type of marketing message.
Another example comes from a study done in the US by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study evaluated how text reminders for vaccinations could help improve the timeliness of immunisations. They discovered that children were 27% more likely to be immunised if the parent received a text reminder that included the date the doses were due. Dr. Stockwell, who led the study, commented that people in the study liked getting the texts because it made them feel the doctor’s office cared about them. The messages were personalised to each child’s information, which in turn proved to the parents that the doctors were really concerned about their children.
If you can make the people on your list feel as though you care about them, know them, or are at least interested in them, your marketing will be much more successful. Go ahead. Give it a try and see how much better you do compared to generic marketing messages.
To learn even more how to get the best out of your marketing read our “Mobile Marketing Guide“.
Related Articles
SMS Marketing Ideas To Celebrate Wimbledon
Three Things You Must Do Right in Your SMS Marketing
SMS messaging can be one of your more effective marketing techniques, but only if you do it right. A poorly executed SMS marketing campaign could have disastrous results for your future budget, and for your organisation.
What to do When Your SMS Campaign is Failing
Here's some ideas on what you can do to help your SMS campaigns to do better. Use the following checklist to see if you’re using all your possible channels.
6 Psychological Tips for SMS Marketing Success
Getting to grips with the underlying psychology of how audiences react both consciously and subconsciously to your message is key to achieving the maximum effect in any type of marketing. All kinds of things come into play with different media, from colours and shapes to images and videos. Even the way things move can have a powerful effect on a viewer. Unlike many other forms of marketing, however, SMS marketing is unique in that the only tool you have is words - and not many of them. But armed with a basic knowledge of consumer psychology, 456 characters is more than enough to get the desired effect. In this article, we present our six top tips to take advantage of the psychology of SMS messaging.
12 Great Quotes to Start Your 2018 SMS Marketing Campaign
Copywriting Principles for SMS Marketing
In a recent post I covered how to create urgency in your SMS marketing messages. It didn't feel right to leave out a few other key components - the U companions. In copywriting circles they are often called the 4-Us. They are: Urgent, Useful, Unique, and Ultra-specific. So to make sure I don't leave anything out, here I'll show you how to use the others in your SMS messaging.
5 Simple Steps to Improve Your SMS Marketing with A/B Testing
Do you ever wonder if your SMS marketing campaigns could be even more successful? Of course, you do! Find out how to put A/B testing to work in your campaigns by following our five simple steps and see your ROI increase
How to Capture the Essence of Autumn in Your SMS Marketing Campaign
9 SMS Marketing Power Words
With its 456 character limit, SMS Marketing challenges us to be succinct, ensuring we pack the most into our punch and deliver powerful and effective calls to action in a minimum of words. With some research and planning, it is still possible to craft great messages that get results and still stay well within the limits. In this article, we share 9 power words and phrases to help to you do just that.
3 Best Types of CTA for SMS Marketing
One mistake some marketers make is assuming people will know what to do when they read an SMS message. After all, they’re short and to the point right? How confusing could they be? On the other hand, when writing every other form of marketing they know that calls to action need to be clear. So, just because you don't have much room, it doesn’t mean you get to leave out your call to action! Saving space and being brief is important though, so take a look at three of the best SMS marketing CTAs you can use.